‘The Blacklist’ Season 1, Episode 9, ‘Anslo Garrick’: TV Recap

To start, a few tidbits about what we have learned . Here is a screen shot of the woman Red was researching last week in the FBI’s violent-criminal database . As you can see, her name was Lucy Brooks, AKA Katherine Wayne. She has several other aliases. She appears to be just a little bit younger than Liz. Could this be a long-lost sister for our heroine? Could this be Red’s daughter? I am sure it will be revealed in good time.

Time for the comment of the week. We had 185 comments last week, so there were a lot to pick from. The winner this week is Barbj, who posited a twist on the debate over whether Red is Liz’s father. She thinks Red had a sex change and is really Liz’s mother! Barb quoted some lines form the show that seem to point to Red having a female sensibility about some things. Well, wouldn’t that be a clever twist?

OK, enough about the old stuff, let’s have a look at this week’s episode.

Things begin with a bang. Agent Ressler is badly wounded in the leg. Red has a knife and is trying to cut something out of his body. Ouch!

Flash to Munich 13 hours earlier. Red is having beers with some fellow criminals. Ressler walks into the bar and Red greets him as a good friend. Ressler pulls Red aside and tells Red that Elizabeth needs him. She’s been detained for some reason. Red rushes to his plane to help her.

Liz is at home in Tom Bond’s arms. She is mourning her father, who died last episode, going through old boxes of his stuff. She pulls out a stuffed bunny rabbit that has burn marks on it. Liz flashes back to a fire from her childhood. A tear runs down her cheek.

At the FBI black site, Ressler and other agents take Red into “protective custody.” They tell him that Liz was not in trouble. Director Cooper tells Red that there is intelligence suggesting he is the target of an assassination attempt. They tell him that someone named Anslo Garrick is targeting him.

Red is not happy. He tells the FBI that Garrick intentionally leaked the story about the assassination attempt because it would force the FBI to take Red in. Red knows he would be much safer on the outside, able to move about as he pleases. Instead, he is trapped in an FBI building, a sitting duck waiting for Garrick to come get him.

We see Garrick sneaking into the FBI black site in a trash truck. His men, the Wild Bunch, shoot a bunch of FBI agents as they blast their way in. Red even mentions that Garrick seems immune to bullets because Red once put one through Garrick’s head and he lived.

Liz is on her way into the FBI building and gets stuck in an elevator when Garrick and the Wild Bunch cut the power.

Ressler is taking Red to “the box,” where he will be safe. Along the way, they encounter one of the Wild Bunch, and Ressler gets shot in the leg. Red could leave him behind but drags Ressler with him into the box. Garrick and his men surround the box, and Garrick pulls off his ski mask, revealing a disfigured face. Red may not have killed Garrick with the gunshot years ago, but he sure messed the guy’s face up.

Meanwhile, Liz gets out of the stuck elevator, though she is barefoot.

Garrick begins taunting Red. He talks about how he suffered for 5 years and has been plotting his revenge ever since Red shot him. “The day is here and it will end with your screams,” Garrick says. Red looks a little bit worried as he attempts to stop Ressler from bleeding to death.

Director. Cooper and some of his men have gotten to the armory. They get in contact with Keane, who says she is “on the inside.” None of them know where Red and Ressler are.

Red performs some makeshift surgery on Ressler. Garrick tells Red that he can save Ressler if Red gives himself up. Garrick then tells Red that Ressler was once on an FBI hit squad assigned to kill Red. Garrick even gave them the info they needed to make the hit, but Ressler messed up, which is why Red is still alive today.

It is Red’s turn to taunt Garrick. He talks about how horrible Garrick looks. Garrick responds by shooting at the thick, bullet-proof glass on the box. Nothing happens, except that a bullet ricochets and hits one of Garrick’s men. Garrick doesn’t care. One of Garrick’s men put plastic explosives on the glass. Maybe that will blow it open.

Liz is making her way around the facility. She seems nervous and is talking to herself. The Wild Bunch manages to overpower the FBI guards at the armory. They take Director Cooper and Agent Malik hostage. I bet they try to use them against Red. He won’t care, but if Garrick gets Liz, Red will certainly come out of the box.

Liz gets the drop on one of the Wild Bunch. He tries to pull a gun on her, and Liz kills him.

Garrick’s men tell him they don’t have enough explosives to break in. He tells his men in the armory to bring more explosives from there.

Red and Ressler have the same blood type, B-negative. Ressler needs blood, and Red gives him a transfusion.

Liz! is kicking butt. She kills several Wild Bunch members who were getting explosives from the armory. She hooks up with the FBI tech guy, who is a very reluctant fighter (he usually has his nose buried in a computer), and the two of them go off to disable the communications-jamming devices that are preventing them from contacting the FBI and getting help.

Red and Ressler are having a heart-to-heart. They talk a bit Ressler’s long pursuit of Red and how Ressler’s obsession with Red led to Ressler losing his fiancé. Red slips in a little story about your life being defined by the first few chapters of your book as well as the last. Seeing as he was once a good guy American and has now, later in life, decided to work with the FBI. It seems he is trying to end his life as a good person. He also talks about what he wants from his life. He wants, just one more time, to sleep the way he slept when he was a young boy.

Dir. Cooper is brought to Garrick, who threatens to kill Cooper if he will not let Garrick into the box. Cooper seems unconcerned. Red tries to talk him out of shooting Cooper. The conversation is interrupted though because Ressler is getting worse. Red needs to cauterize – burn – the wound in Ressler’s leg or he will die. It sounds awful. It is the horrible knife surgery we saw at the beginning of the episode.

Liz and the FBI techie are slowly finding the jamming devices. They need to split up to find all of them. After they split up, Liz get captured by one of the Wild Bunch.

Garrick grabs one of his hostages, one of Red’s assistants, and blows her head off. Red is upset and demands that Cooper open the box. Red screams at Cooper but Cooper refuses. Garrick pulls out Red’s bodyguard. The bodyguard and Red share a tender moment through the glass of the box and then Garrick kills the man.

And the episode is over! Part 2 of this story, next week!

The previews for next week show Garrick putting a gun to Liz’s head (told ya that would happen). It also shows Red threatening Ressler’s life because he wants to let Garrick in so Garrick will stop killing people Red loves. It is worth noting that Garrick does not want to kill Red, he wants to “extract” him and take him somewhere.

As for this episode… Wow!! Very tense! Brilliantly acted! Even though we got nothing in terms of the overall story about Red and Liz’s relationship or the truth about Tom Bond, this was a fabulous episode. I enjoyed them breaking out of the rut of chasing down one Blacklist member each week. This was truly fun!

So, what did you think? Did you enjoy it as much as I did? The comment section has been full of clever ideas and theories. Post your thoughts and join the conversation. I’ll see you there!

If you want to hear more of Jason Evans’ thoughts on the world of movies and TV, follow him on Twitter @TVFilmTalk and be sure to check out Speakeasy every Monday and Wednesday for his recaps of The Blacklist and Arrow.

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